And the second is the determination to continue upon acts of obedience after entering into that and to move from an excellent condition to an even more excellent condition than that one. And this is in regards to the conclusions.

ولهذا سمى الله خواص الرسل أولو العزم ـ وهم خمسة ـ وهم أفضل الرسل . ـ

And for this reason Allah named the leading Messengers the “Possessors of Determination” [al-Uloo al-‘Azm] – and there are five of them – and they are the best of the Messengers*.

So the first type of determination allows the slave to thereby attain every good and to distance himself from every evil. And in the case of the disbeliever, then he thereby attains exodus from disbelief and entrance into Islam. And the disobedient one thereby attains leaving from disobedience and entering unto obedience. So if it is true determination and its possessor persists upon it and launches a true offensive against his own desires and against the shaytaan, and he enters into what he has been commanded with of the acts of obedience, then he has achieved success.

The scholars have differed greatly regarding the intended meaning of Uloo al-‘Azm among the messengers in this noble ayah [46:35]. And the most well-known position in that regard is that they are five, and they are those who were previously mentioned in surah al-Ahzab [33:7] and surah al-Shooraa [42:13], and they are Nuh, Ibrahim, Moosaa, ‘Eesaa and Muhammad (‘alaihim al-salaatu wa’l-salaam).